Following a day filled with news of Electronic Arts wanting to buy out Take-Two Interactive, Take-Two's subsequent rejection, and a plethora of Grand Theft Auto and Bioshock fans expressing their own concerns, EA CEO John Riccitiello has decided to share the details of his plans, if all had gone well.

I wouldn't change a line of code in "BioShock" nor would I in "GTA" or "Max Payne"... what we would do is sell more of it.

John Riccitello, CEO - Electronic Arts

Riccitello also went on to explain that EA lacks M-rated content and that an acquisition of Take-Two would have certainly boosted EA in that department (which, ironically, was one of the many concerns that GTA fans expressed - many feared that the franchise would be censored or dumbed down to better follow EA's standards). When asked about the apparent monopoly that EA would have over sports games if the Take-Two deal went through, Riccitello suggested that they would have still had rivals such as "Wii Sports" and "Hot Shots Golf".

It's impossible to tell in what direction the GTA franchise would have gone if EA's offer wasn't rejected, just as it's impossible to tell if Riccitello's explanations were what he had in mind before yesterday's publicity and outrage. I think it's safe to say, however, that Grand Theft Auto is in no imminent danger - so for now it's onward to GTA IV!

An acquisition by EA would almost certainly lead to a dumbing-down of the franchise. The radio would certainly go downhill, the wide variety of music replaced by three stations that all play major-label pop trash--Green Day, Nickelback, etc.

Besides dumbing down GTA and other titles, I would hate to lose 2K's great sports games. They already took NFL2K from me and the buyout would make NFL2K9 impossible and end the NBA2K series and other series. EA thinks they are slick, when in fact they are not. WE SEE RIGHT THRU YOU!

I read an interesting article that said EA is no longer buying up brands, their new strategy is to buy up the next-gen game engines.

They are after the R.A.G.E. What better engine to get a hold of than the one powering the next greatest game since San Andreas.

If they did acquire Take-Two and Rockstar in this fashion, they will most likely leave them to creative freedom to get the best product. But EA would still have a monopoly over many of the next gen engines and I can't see how no competition is a good thing.

Yeah, I'm not really sure what he means when he said he can take the franchise places it doesn't reach. This website gets visitors from every country except North Korea and a couple in central Africa, so I'm sure Take-Two's reach is doing just fine!

Why does this website don't get visitors from North Korea, because of their regieme?
Anyway there won't be anything good to GTA after selling T2...it could get only worse! They couldn't sell more GTA's then they are selling now. GTA is the best game series.

I'm guessing for one, North Korea isn't to hot imports. Two, I'm sure a good chunk of stuff on the internet is censored for them. And three, people there have more to worry about than the latest news on GTA IV.

Most people in North Korea can't afford a computer. Many of them can barely afford FOOD. NK's people starve while the great Kim Jong Il builds an 8-lane superhighway..never mind that nobody in North Korea is allowed to own a car (mobility creates dissent)

It's likely they don't get a lot of visitors from China either, as their regime is just as strict when it comes to censorship.

Actually we get about 6,000 visitors per month from China - I wouldn't say that's too shabby! They're not too strict there when it comes to videogames. I've been to China and I stumbled into this underground (literally, underground :p) net forum, and let me tell you...there were about 500 people in there. They're pretty big on videogames...their censorship only deals with anti-government and pro-Taiwanese independence :P

I've never been to North Korea, but I think it's not so bad there. Of course people are poor there, but I don't think they are starving. I don't like communism anyway, but we were not starving in USSR, though I was 3 years old when it broke down :)
But it's great they have Russian characters in the game, including the main hero, it's better than having North Korean characters ))